Safe containing £20,000 is stolen during big golf event

● Thieves target Kingsbarns Links at women’s major

Thieves stole a safe containing nearly £20,000 in cash from one of Scotland’s leading golf courses during one of the UK’S most prestigious tournaments.

The safe was stolen from a Portacabin at Kingsbarns Golf Links in Fife, which was hosting the Ricoh Women’s British Open championship.

The thieves broke in to the Portacabin some time after 8:15pm on Saturday 5 August – the penultimate day of the competition – and 6am the following morning, when the raid was discovered by staff returning for work.

They removed the safe, which contained the five-figure sum of cash in takings from the event.

Police in Fife said they have worked closely with staff at the course to identify those responsible and have been pursuing “a number of lines of inquiry”.

Alan Hogg, chief executive of Kingsbarns Golf Links, said the safe was stolen from a food and beverage Portacabin in the spectators’ village.

Mr Hogg said: “We don’t know many details of what actually happened and what’s been stolen, other than that a theft of a safe had taken place on our facility.”

He added: “Last putt would have been about 7:15pm on the Saturday evening and spectators would have vacated the premises, as would the majority of staff members, to be back again around 5:30am the next again morning.

“There was a security company 24-hours on site at that time.

“It’s frustrating for everybody involved in such a great event that this has put a dampener on the proceedings and all the positive things that happened.

“Nobody wants anything to take away from the spectacle that was a very successful Ricoh Women’s British Open.”

He added: “We are assisting the police with their inquiries, with access to our CCTV cameras if they have picked up anything.

“Within the tournament village infrastructure there are also cameras set up.”

The village of Kingsbarns has been associated with golf for more than 200 years.

The Kingsbarns Golfing Society was formed in 1793, with the first course, on land leased from the Cambo Estate, being in use until around 1850, and another in use from 1922 to 1939 when it was returned to farming as an aid to the war effort.

The course, which opened in 2000, is ranked among the top 100 in the world.